After surpassing nine figures in revenue through its direct-to-consumer channel, Ogee is aiming to conquer brick-and-mortar retail.
This month, the makeup and skincare brand debuted on Nordstrom’s website and in the department store retailer’s New York City flagship as part of an interactive four-shelf gondola display that features a video showing the Arizona farm where the brand sources the cold-pressed extra virgin jojoba oil that powers its products. Ogee’s assortment at Nordstrom encompasses bestsellers like $96 Crystal Contour Collection, a kit that contains cream bronzer, blush and highlighter sticks, $86 Activated Botanical Primer, $88 Brightening Botanical Eye Balm and newer hits like $48 Skin Enhancing Primer SPF 40. The brand is set to launch in an additional 14 Nordstrom doors in September.
Getting Nordstrom’s stamp of approval was an important step in validating Ogee’s luxury positioning. The upscale retailer’s high-touch selling environment was also a draw. An NSF certified organic brand that utilizes at least 70% organic ingredients in its formulas, Ogee is prioritizing retailers that are focused on clienteling to connect with shoppers.
“Our biggest challenge is connecting with that customer who’s looking for clean and being able to communicate to them that message that certified organic equals clean,” says Abbott Stark, co-founder and chief product officer of Ogee. “Having a really engaged retail force that’s able to say, ‘This is the cleanest brand,’ is really important to us.”
Ogee kicked off a six-day social media campaign across Instagram and TikTok in mid-July to drum up awareness about the Nordstrom partnership among its followers. So far, it’s been working. Stark says early demand for the brand is ramping up on the retailer’s website, where it’s already outperforming forecasts by about 300%.
Ogee’s Nordstrom launch follows its brick-and-mortar debut at Bluemercury, where it recently expanded to all 173 locations nationwide after launching in 10 stores in the spring of 2022. Stark says Ogee is now one of Bluemercury’s top-performing makeup brands thanks to an engaged field sales team that conducts master classes and visits stores daily to keep the brand top-of-mind for customers and sales associates. Ogee will employ a similar strategy to ensure success at Nordstrom stores.
Nordstrom isn’t the last retail stop for Ogee, either. It’s aiming to expand into other stockists coast-to-coast over the next few years to amplify the demand it’s seeing online. “We’re either looking for a retailer that helps substantiate the luxury and organic positioning, or just a sheer number of doors,” Stark notes.
Ogee is expanding its retail network from a place of strength. In 2023, its revenues multiplied by 3X. They grew by 85% in 2022, and by 80% in the year prior.
Launched online in 2016 by Stark, his brother Alex and Mark Rice, who formerly co-owned and managed the John Galliano fashion label before it was acquired by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), Ogee was an early mover in categories now considered to be mainstream by beauty shoppers: premium clean and skincare-infused makeup. Its $26 Tinted Sculpted Lip Oils were an early hit that fueled brand awareness and DTC sales.
Ogee also rode the wave of the DTC boom of the 2010s, when cheaper digital marketing costs powered consumer brands to gain enormous scale through online channels. Stark says that the brand used to spend “an unlimited amount” of cash on digital marketing to drive growth in its early days, even if a return wasn’t attached to it. Ogee eventually ditched its growth-at-all-costs strategy as the brand reached profitability. “We’re very proud of that,” says Stark. “And that speaks to the increased efficiency of our digital marketing spend.”
Adding investors to its cap table has also helped keep Ogee in line when it came to spending. Between 2017 and 2022, it raised $14.3 million over a series of three rounds from the likes of Birchview Capital, Coastal Ventures, Trinity Capital, FreshTracks Capital, Hula and ZRF Partners. Stark says the brand isn’t currently looking to raise any more equity funding.
DTC still accounts for the largest percentage of Ogee’s business at 80%. Amazon, where Crystal Contour Collection ranks in the top 10 bronzers on the platform, contributes 15% to the brand’s top-line sales. Retail sales make up the balance.
Stark counts Ogee’s $98 The Discovery Set as one of the brand’s most impactful investments to date. Launched in late 2023 to boost skincare sales, the kit contains deluxe sample sizes of six of the brand’s skincare products, including The Liquid Gold Cleansing Oil and Seeds of Youth Serum. Although it went on to become a bestseller, The Discovery Set was a very risky move for Ogee initially. Stark mentions that the brand invested about $1 million in the product’s launch, a significant portion of its top line sales at that time.
“That could have tanked the business,” says Stark. “Thank goodness it was this incredible success. It allowed us to advertise to first-time skincare customers and brought in a level of returning customers that fell in love with a daily use item that they were going to use up and buy again.”
Ogee has seen double-digit increases in skincare sales since launching The Discovery Set. It aims to bring makeup and skincare into a more even split in its business moving forward. Makeup accounts for the majority of Ogee’s sales at present.
While Meta and social media advertising still play a pivotal role in powering Ogee’s online awareness, influencers have become a more valuable part of its marketing mix. It currently works with a couple thousand creators that are chosen based on their aesthetics and how they connect with the brand. Stark says that influencer content typically yields the highest return for Ogee and has been the most valuable to advertise against.
Celebrity and big influencer endorsements certainly help, too. Actress Halle Berry counted Ogee’s Crystal Contour Collection as one of her favorite beauty products of 2023 in a video she posted to her Instagram account in early 2024. Utah homestead influencer Hannah Neeleman, known by her handle Ballerina Farm on social media where she has amassed over 17 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, has also shared her love for Ogee on TikTok. The brand has since worked with Neeleman on a series of paid collaborations.
Influencers have introduced younger shoppers to Ogee. Previously, the brand catered almost exclusively to women over the age of 50. Now, gen Z shoppers have gotten hooked on products like its $38 Targeted Blemish Treatment. Stark says Ogee’s largest customer cohort currently sits between older millennials and gen X shoppers.
Ogee is now hyper-focused on more top-of-funnel marketing to pull customers into the brand and educate them on its clean and organic positioning. Stark notes that the brand is in the process of evolving its “Beyond Clean Beauty” tagline. “It’s a lot of education so the equal sign may not be lighting up for people,” he says. “There’s so much happening in the space, so ‘Clean Guaranteed’ is one of a number of clearer taglines that we’re testing.”
Looking ahead, Ogee is aiming to push further into the complexion category as well as expand its international borders. “We’ve had really good success in some of the international markets in terms of pickup and interest in the brand. That’s an opportunity that we’re excited about,” says Stark.
